The security forces disperse Togo demonstrators demanding the resignation of the president | Protests

Faure Gnassingbe is confronted with criticisms of changes in the constitution of the country which could keep it indefinitely in power.

The security forces have used tear gas to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who blocked the roads in the capital of Togo to demand the resignation of longtime leader Faure Gnassingbe.

Hundreds of demonstrators have set up barricades of concrete blocks Thursday in several districts of Lomé, with burning tires and throwing projectiles from the security forces. Police dispersed dozens of demonstrators with tear gas and arrested several people in the BE district, a bastion of the opposition.

The demonstrations intervene while Gnassingbe faces growing calls of criticisms to resign, on modifications to the constitution of the country which could keep it indefinitely in power.

Civil society groups and social media influencers called for demonstrations from June 26 to 28, after the government’s repression on demonstrations earlier this month.

A strong police presence was created throughout the capital, where many companies have closed for the day. Military jeeps have also been deployed in the form of reinforcements in certain regions.

“We are hungry. Nothing works anymore for Togolese young people, which is why we are going to protest this morning,” said Kossi Albert, a 30 -year -old unemployed man, adding that he was planning to recover on Friday.

Hodabalo Awate, Minister of Territorial Administration of Togo, did not immediately respond to a request for comments on the response of the security forces to demonstrations.

A coalition of political groups known as “Hands Off My Constitution” declared on Wednesday in an article on Facebook that he “exhorts Faure Gnassingbe strongly to immediately and unconditionally release all one hundred political prisoners, and to take urgent measures to restore purchasing power to the population”.

He called for an “unprecedented peaceful demonstration”.

Gnassingbe, who has reigned since 2005 after the death of his father, tightened in May as president of the Council of Ministers. The powerful role has no official term limit.

Opposition politicians denounced this decision as a “constitutional coup” which could extend its reign to life.

The Togolese authorities arrested dozens of people at the beginning of the month during the demonstrations against the new role of Gnassingbe as well as what criticisms described as a repression against dissent and a cost of living crisis, according to Amnesty International. Many were quickly released, said the rights for the rights of rights.

The demonstrations are rare in Togo because they have been prohibited in the country since 2022, after a fatal attack on the main market in Lome.

But the last change in government structure was widely criticized in a region that has witnessed state and other threats to democracy.